Wildlife Promise » winter weatherhttp://blog.nwf.org
The National Wildlife Federation's blogFri, 31 Jul 2015 19:00:24 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3The Snowshoe Hare, Fashion Victim of Climate Changehttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/04/the-snowshoe-hare-fashion-victim-of-climate-change/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/04/the-snowshoe-hare-fashion-victim-of-climate-change/#commentsTue, 10 Apr 2012 14:57:11 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=50661Spring came to DC early this year with temperatures reaching into the low 80s by mid-March. While most people were thrilled about the unseasonably warm weather, I found myself unprepared. Having only moved to DC recently, my shorts and sandals are still packed away in Richmond, leaving me wearing winter clothes in a city already swarming with floral sundresses. After reading the recent NWF report On Thin Ice: Warming Winters Put America’s Hunting and Fishing Heritage at Risk, I realized I wasn’t the only who’s been dressing for the wrong weather lately – the snowshoe hare was stuck sporting a white coat in a winter that saw very little snow.

Species that depend on camouflage to blend in with snow in the winter face unique threats from climate change. With less snow for protection, they become more susceptible to hungry predators. Species like the snowshoe hare are struggling to adapt effectively to warmer temperature and reduced snow fall, and this seriously threatens their chances for survival.

Nowhere to Hide

During warm months, the snowshoe hare’s coat is a rusty brown, but when the days start to shorten, the hare’s coat whitens to hide it from predators like lynxes, coyotes, and eagles. Unfortunately, in recent years, snow is falling later and melting sooner, leaving the snow-white rabbit dangerously conspicuous against a green and brown background. According to the NWF report:

“…Winter is becoming less white: The extent of snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere has decreased by approximately 3 to 9 percent since 1978, with especially rapid declines in the western United States. Climatologists expect these trends to continue, and they project that by the end of the century, parts of the Northeast will lose as many as half of their snow-covered days each year.”

This is a particularly deadly forecast for the snowshoe hare who may not be able to adapt quickly enough to survive these changes. While it’s only natural for these rabbits to provide sustenance to hungry predators throughout the winter, if the hares become too easy to catch, entire hare populations could be at risk, along with the species that rely on them for food. According to University of Montana researcher Scott Mills, “Hares are important because they are prey for almost everything in the forest that eats meat. Without hares, the ecosystem unravels.”

Getting Back on Trend

For the snowshoe hare, wearing white after Labor Day is more than just a faux pas – it’s a matter of life and death. Fortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency has begun the process of tackling climate change by proposing historic limits to industrial carbon pollution from new power plants. Big polluters are expected to challenge these limits, so it’s up to us to show our decision-makers that we want the EPA to protect wildlife from the dirty fossil fuels that cause climate change. The future of snowshoe hares depends on it.

Read the full report On Thin Ice: Warming Winters Put America’s Hunting and Fishing Heritage at Risk at NWF.org/CleanAir

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/04/the-snowshoe-hare-fashion-victim-of-climate-change/feed/2Weekly News Roundup – March 30, 2012http://blog.nwf.org/2012/03/weekly-news-roundup-march-30-2012/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/03/weekly-news-roundup-march-30-2012/#commentsFri, 30 Mar 2012 19:33:01 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=51604Want to know what National Wildlife Federation was up to this week? Here is a recap of the week’s NWF news:

March 30 – NWF and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) have released a new step-by-step guide to creating student peer-to-peer sustainability education programs—often known as “Eco-Rep” programs—on college campuses. Authored by Champlain College Sustainability Director Christina Erickson, “Student Sustainability Educators: A Guide to Creating and Maintaining an Eco-Rep Program on Your Campus” takes readers through the design, implementation and evaluation stages of an Eco-Rep program.

March 29 – The U.S. House of Representatives today is expected to pass the budget plan written by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). A National Wildlife Federation analysis shows the plan would gut investments in natural resources that already make up only a tiny fraction of federal spending.

“The vast majority of Americans believe the federal government has a fundamental responsibility to help ensure that our air is clean, our water is safe to drink and our treasured National Parks, refuges and other public lands are protected for this and future generations,” said Josh Saks, legislative director of the National Wildlife Federation.

March 27 – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the first-ever national carbon pollution limits for new power plant smokestacks. These long-awaited new air pollution standards are essential for reining in the climate change-causing carbon pollution that is increasingly endangering the nation’s public health and wildlife. The new air pollution standards are the result of a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that found carbon dioxide and other air pollution from cars, power plants, and other sources is subject to the Clean Air Act. Despite that ruling and a subsequent 2011 Supreme Court ruling reinforcing the decision, it is expected that a number of big polluting utilities and coal interests will fight the standard.

March 27 – Near-record warmth in the winter of 2011-2012 left both wildlife and outdoor enthusiasts scrambling to adapt – and it’s just a preview of what’s to come in a warming world, according to a new report from the National Wildlife Federation. On Thin Ice: Warming Winters Put America’s Hunting and Fishing Heritage at Risk tells the stories of how 2011-2012’s warm winter impacted hunters and anglers across America and details the steps we need to take now to protect those traditions for future generations.

March 27 – Capitol newspapers will run full-page color ads this week by six Gulf restoration advocacy groups thanking the 76 Senators who approved legislation to dedicate 80 percent of the Clean Water Act fines from the parties responsible for the Gulf oil spill to restoring the Gulf.

The ad copy says:

“On behalf of our members nationwide, we thank the 76 Senate leaders who voted in favor of restoring the ecosystems and economies of the Gulf region by passing the RESTORE Act as an amendment to the transportation bill.

Skiing on Lake Michigan

When I was 10, we rented a house along the shores of Lake Michigan for a winter weekend. Growing up in Chicago, I had spent many hours playing on the beach in the summertime. But, this was my first visit to the lake during winter. And it was magical, like something out of an actual winter wonderland. We spent hours cross-country skiing through forests frosted with icicles.

Most amazing of all was the lake. In contrast to the summer waves lapping the shore, there was ice extending probably hundreds of yards out into the lake. The ice was more than thick enough for us to ski right out on the lake! I still remember how thrilling this felt!

After a winter like 2011-2012, these sorts of memories feel distant, almost archaic. With this year’s warm winter weather, the lakes have had very little ice. Satellite images indicate that only 5 percent of the lakes froze over, much less than the around 50 percent ice cover that was typical when I was a child.

Great Lakes Are Losing Ice

It’s not just this year. The annual mean lake ice area observed on Lake Michigan has declined by 77 percent from 1973 to 2010, according to a recent paper published by Jia Wang and other researchers at NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the University of Michigan. In fact, all of the lakes have seen a long term decline in ice cover, with an average loss of 71 percent.

The authors point to increasing winter air temperatures as an explanation. Over the same time period, winter temperatures increased by 2.7 – 4.0 degrees Fahrenheit on average in the Great Lakes region. Water temperatures are increasing even more. With less ice cover to reflect the Sun’s rays back to space, the lakes can absorb more heat each year.

Of course, the decline in ice cover isn’t a steady downward march. The year-to-year variability caused by natural cycles is still an important factor in how much ice will form in any particular year. This new paper also sheds light on the roles of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation in controlling the short-term variability.

More than Ice at Stake

The loss of winter-time ice in the Great Lakes has ripple effects for wildlife and outdoor activities alike. NWF staffer Melinda Koslow summarizes some potential impacts of lost ice: dangerous algal blooms, the loss of protection for fish eggs and near-shore wetland habitats, and increased evaporation leading to lower lake water levels. Meanwhile ice fishing activitieshave been curtailed across the Midwest and in other northern states this year.

Take Action

The last few months serve as a window into what winter will usually look like in a warmer world. Let’s also use this winter as a wake-up call to start taking actions to preserve the outdoor winter traditions that we each treasure.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/03/great-lakes-ice-missing-in-action/feed/2Guest Post: A Bare Bear Brook Parkhttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/guest-post-a-bare-bear-brook-park/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/guest-post-a-bare-bear-brook-park/#commentsTue, 28 Feb 2012 16:19:31 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=45905Eric Orff is a wildlife biologist. He retired from New Hampshire Fish and Game in 2007 after a 31 year career as a biologist. He currently is a consultant to the National Wildlife Federation and is the Merrimack County Fish and Game Commissioner. He serves on the boards of the NH Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Suncook River and New England Outdoor Writers Association.

Unbelievable. Just unbelievable how this winter is going in New Hampshire. I wanted to get back out ice fishing this weekend, but was a bit worried the 7 or 8 inches of ice we had two weekends ago has significantly melted. Snow, except a patch here and there, is gone from even around here. South and east of here, there is none to be seen at all.

I got an hour-long hike in recently at Bear Brook State Park near my home. Here is a place I have spent time each winter over the 33 years I have lived in Epsom. For the first time in my memory, Bear Brook, as in Bear Brook State Park, is ice-free in mid-February. I have snowmobiled, snowshoed, skied, and hiked past this brook all those years. The local snowmobile club spent countless hours preparing a trail called 360, which runs through the Park, and yet, not a single machine has passed by my house on the trail this winter. The trail lay bare before me yesterday as I hiked along it.

Here in town, the local snowmobile dealer has sleds stacked high in crates along the outside of his business. What a huge economic impact this is to New Hampshire! At Wednesday’s Fish and Game Commission meeting, the director noted that snowmobile revenue to the department is off some $1 million dollars this winter. A significant part of the annual registration fees are allocated to local clubs for trail maintenance. So, not only will this deficit hurt our state this winter, but funds will be in short supply when it comes time for the local clubs to ready the trails for next winter. But, they will still need plenty of work because trees will have come down just the same, and bridges will be washed out just the same.

My travels took me to the coast yesterday. I headed over early to take some time for a drive and to look at Great Bay in the daylight. Here again, I was struck by the view of an iceless Great Bay. I’m pretty sure this is the first time in recorded history that the Bay has not frozen.

Great Bay, New Hampshire (credit: Eric Orff)

Not far from where I stopped to take some pictures, I remembered a time when I was in high school, probably 1967, that my best friend Rick and I came to the Bay late one December to hunt geese. While most of the Bay was ice-free, we hunkered down behind some giant ice sheets shoved up on the shore by the tides. I remember the snow was deep on our hike to the Bay’s shore. The geese were a half mile away at the bay’s center, but the sound of those geese honking away as we lay in wait easily surfs to my mind’s eye. But, yesterday: nada. No ice or snow could be seen anywhere. While one winter cannot be attributed to climate change, to me, one winter out of several hundred when Great Bay has not frozen over at all sure has some implications of climate change.

The report highlights the seemingly peculiar effect that global warming is having on winter weather in the northern United States. Even as winter is becoming milder and shorter on average, most snowbelt areas are still experiencing extremely heavy snowstorms and some places are expected to have even more heavy snowfalls, with their attendant disruptions to commuting, work, and school.

And check out Dr. Jeff Masters’ excellent posts to better understand how more energy in the atmosphere from a warming planet can affect the intensity of snowstorms: “record-breaking snowstorms are not an indication that global warming is not occurring. In fact, we can expect there may be more heavy snowstorms in regions where it is cold enough to snow, due to the extra moisture global warming has added to the atmosphere – an extra 4% since 1970. Snow is not the same as cold, and we have to look at global temperatures, not snowfall, to evaluate whether global warming is occurring.”